I want the Call of Duty nation to feel supported across all platforms – Phil Spencer

Hey there!

🎉 But we have so much more:

There’s a lot more things to know about Spider-Man 2 and you can read them in our Game Central section.

Lots of gaming investments announced in the last few days (read them in the Biz Reel section). A content creator signs an 8 figure deal with a streaming platform, while another one adds to his partnership with a developer studio.

Players avoid games with harmful communities and Call of Duty will have equal performance on all platforms.

Oh, and a Shiba Inu will speedrun Gyromite, how cool is this?

Let’s play!

Welcome to The Power-Up #27

Biz Reel

💷 The UK video games industry offers entry-level professionals an average salary that's 19.6% higher than the broader tech sector, but senior directors in gaming earn 15.2% less.

📈 In 2022, the Swedish games industry saw a 13% year-on-year growth, generating €3.1 billion domestically, with employment in the sector rising by 6% to 8,445 individuals. Including international sales, Swedish game companies made €8.1 billion. Embracer Group contributed €3.5 billion to that.

📈 Meanwhile, South-East Asian mobile gaming market is expected to grow to $8 billion in revenues by 2027. We used to test mobile games there in 2014 not expecting any big revenues!

📈 PS5 sales in Europe surged by 175% in September year-on-year, as revealed by the latest GSD figures.

🤑 The content creator NICKMERCS signs an 8 figure deal with the streaming platform Kick. He’s not gonna leave Twitch, though.

💰 There were several investment announced recently:

• Quest Portal raises $7.6M and launches subscription for tabletop role-playing games

• Riot-backed Forge raises $11M 

• Krafton (of PUBG fame) invests $14.8 million in One Store, an alternate app store.

💰 And talking about PUBG, PUBG Mobile will invest $100,000,000 in their creator support project. The money will be used for competitions, opportunities and incentives for the game.

🤝 Tastypill, a hyper casual game publisher, sells their 1 billion downloads portfolio to Azur Games. Tastypill remains an independent company.

Industry Level-Up (or Down)

👔 Roblox is requiring most remote employees to return to the office three days a week or opt for a severance package. CEO David Baszucki emphasized the importance of in-person work for innovation and mentorship, while some specialized roles will remain remote.

😔 Zen Studios, known for Pinball FX, laid off 32 employees, nearly half its workforce, amidst Embracer's ongoing restructuring program.

👋 Adrian Hon, co-founder of Six to Start, will leave the studio in 2024, having pioneered fitness games like Zombies, Run! and Marvel Move. In addition to game development, Hon authored several books, including a sci-fi novel and a work on gamification.

Round-Up

🏆 Starfield topped September's sales charts despite being available on Game Pass and being an Xbox and PC exclusive. The game's performance is noteworthy given it faced competition mainly from sports titles and lacked the PlayStation playerbase.

🤢 53% of game developers observed increased toxic behavior in the past year, as per a Unity report. 76% of players avoid games notorious for harmful communities.

🤝 MrBeast partners with Scopely’s Stumble Guys to bring more life into the game with a new level, adding to the already existing cosmetic partnership.

🎮 Sony's new patent suggests a DualSense controller with slots to charge wireless earbuds. This could be tailored for the PS5-specific Pulse Explore earbuds, but its market release remains uncertain.

🤖 Motive Studio is developing a single-player Iron Man game using Unreal Engine 5 as part of an EA/Marvel collaboration. The team, currently in early pre-production, is seeking feedback from a Community Council of Marvel fans to shape the game's development.

🐕 A Shiba Inu named Peanut Butter will speedrun the NES game Gyromite at AGDQ 2024, assisted by his owner, speedrunner JSR_. The unique event, part of a charity-driven speedrunning showcase, demonstrates the dog's genuine gameplay inputs, driven by treats.

Game Central

🔫 Microsoft's Phil Spencer has guaranteed that Call of Duty will maintain equal performance on all platforms, including PS5 & PS4, after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

🕸️ Insomniac advises players to download Marvel's Spider-Man 2 launch day patch for an optimized experience, particularly in the opening sections. While the disc version is complete, the patch refines the gameplay and includes accessibility options.

🤨 The game won't have features like New Game Plus (NG+) at launch. Despite some player disappointment, the studio reminds fans that similar features took weeks to be added in the original game.

😅 However, the new Spidey game will receive a New Game Plus mode and mission replay feature post-launch, aiming to release these updates "before end of year."

🕷️ Here is the Spider-Man story so far:

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Stay powered-up until next time.

Bobby & Andrei

#27.